Landscaped gardens by RHS award winning team and grounds with 2 lakes | Substantial summer house | Large garden store/workshop

About 2.8 acres

It is rare to find a home that is as well presented, privately situated and accessible to a highly sought after Cathedral City that is also readily accessible to London (64 miles) by either car or railway (56 minutes).

The accommodation provides an easy modern lifestyle in a very high quality environment, with a central kitchen and dining area, great variety of recepetion and entertaining spaces. A second building, of equal quality, provides a home office, guest suite, gymnasium or other facilities, and car parking and garden equipment are catered for on an ample scale.

Following careful consultation with the renowned architect, Sir Thomas Croft, the property was created about 7 years ago from a disused barn dating from the 1300s in the grounds of the adjacent Manor House. Whilst every facility for modern life has been carefully incorporated it was ensured that the integrity of the medieval barn was retained. The result is a spectacular home that has been carefully improved and enhanced by the current owners.

The accommodation has been designed so that the volume of the original building remains, and the enormous spaces have been subtly sub-divided to provide rooms for separate purposes that interlink and are flexible in their use. The whole volume of the original building is visible from all areas of the main living space, and the oak frame has been carefully restored so as to form an integral part of the design.

Approaching The Manor Barn from the driveway, which is screened behind a hornbeam hedge, you enter via glazed doors set in the glazed wall around which the house has been designed. A generous entrance hall gives access to the reception room.

At the heart of the home is the kitchen, set in the cart bay entrance with a glazed roof which, like much of the barn, has double height ceilings. Imported from Italy, the kitchen contains a superb range of fitted equipment of the highest quality. To the other side is the dining area which, together with the kitchen, adjoins outside decked terraces that link seamlessly with the internal space, providing private seating areas for indoor or alfresco dining. A walk-in larder provides an additional food preparation and storage area.

The drawing room is at a slightly lower level and, like the other reception areas, enjoys views over a large area of the garden through the southern elevation which is glazed along its entire length. These dramatic garden views from all areas of The Manor Barn across the lake are a particular feature of the house. A cinema room (second sitting room) with cocktail bar and adjoining wine cellar are found at the west end of the barn.

On the first floor in the main part of the barn are two large bedroom suites, one of which appears to float in mid air above the reception areas below, with bathrooms fitted to the highest of specifications, and dressing and seating areas. Walls of glass allow light to flood through the property. The remaining bedrooms are found in the original cow shed to the barn and are arranged as three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The fifth bedroom is currently used as a boot room.

The New BarnThe New Barn was constructed simultaneously with the conversion and is set across the garden from The Manor Barn. Designed to also be able to offer secondary accommodation, the very generous home office or sitting room and gymnasium sit close to the lake and enjoy views of the garden. There are also a kitchen and shower/sauna/steam room. To one side of The New Barn are three open-fronted garages and a secure garage/machinery store.

TechnologyThe barn has been converted with modern living and the latest technology in mind. The following (non-exhaustive) list of equipment has been incorporated:

A magnificent pair of electronically operated, hand-crafted, solid oak gates open from the tree-lined main driveway onto the long, private, gravel drive that leads up to The Manor Barn. The gardens are a major feature of the property and have been carefully landscaped with the same attention to detail as the barns themselves. In recent years a fully automated irrigation system has been introduced, and an oak summer house with floating deck has been built to a similar quality of the rest of the accommodation, including power, light and heating, and providing a tranquil area away from the main house.

A principal feature is the pair of stream fed lakes, stocked with brown and rainbow trout. The newer lake is carefully situated to form the focus of the principal views from The Manor Barn and The New Barn, and is set at the foot of the natural amphitheatre formed by the lawns beyond; the golf course irrigation system is fed by the lake.

Close to the barns are paved terraces, hardwood decks and formal lawns, providing seating areas designed to capture the sun at all hours of the day. At the rear of The Manor Barn is a courtyard garden, enclosed by mature beech and bamboo hedging; a decked terrace surrounded by raised flower beds and a cascading water feature are adjacent to The New Barn. Exterior LED lighting to the gates, drive, courtyard and garden features is controlled remotely.